Calendar: May 13

A Year: Day to Day Men: 13th of May

The Perfection of His Repose

May 13, 1856 was the birthdate of British writer and photographer, Peter Henry Emerson who first promoted photography as an independent art.

Peter Emerson was born on the Palma Estate, a sugar plantation in Cuba, belonging to his American father and British mother. He spent his early years in Cuba, but moved to England in 1869, after the death of his father. He was schooled at Cranleigh School in Surrey and later at King’s College London, before switching to Clare College in Cambridge in 1879. There he earned his medical degree in 1885.

Emerson bought his first camera in late 1881 to be used on bird-watching trips with his friend, the ornithologist A.T. Evans. In 1886 he was elected to the Council of the Photographic Society and abandoned his career as a surgeon to devote his time to writing and photography, initially influenced by naturalistic French painting but gradually turning more to experimentation.

During his life Emerson fought against the British photographic establishment on a number of issues. In 1889 he published a controversial and influential book “Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art”, in which he explained his philosophy of art and straightforward photography. The book was a direct attack on the popular tradition of combining many photographs to produce one image that had been pioneered in the 1850s.

This method allowed the production of images that, especially in early days, could not have been produced indoors in low light, and it also made possible the creation of highly dramatic images, often in imitation of allegorical paintings. Emerson denounced this technique as false and claimed that photography should be seen as a genre of its own, not one that seeks to imitate other art forms. All Emerson’s own pictures were taken in a single shot and without retouching.

Emerson also believed that the photograph should be a true representation of that which the eye saw. Following contemporary optical theories, he produced photographs with one area of sharp focus while the remainder was unsharp. He vehemently pursued this argument about the nature of seeing and its representation in photography, to the discomfort of the photographic establishment.

Calendar: May 12

A Year: Day to Day Men: 12th of May

Green Lives on Water

Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Blow-Up” wins the Grand Prix at Cannes on May 12, 1967.

“Blow-Up” is a 1966 British-Italian mystery thriller film directed by Antonioni about a fashion photographer who believes he has unwittingly captured a murder on film. This film was Antonioni’s first production entirely in English. The actor in the film’s photographer role was David Hemmings, chosen by Michaelangelo Antonioni after Sean Connery turned down the role. Hemmings at that time was not a major star but acting in small theater productions in London.

There were several known stars in cast of this film, Including John Castle and Vanessa Redgrave. However there were several noted cameo roles. One of these cameos was the musical group The Yardbirds, who performed “Stroll On” near the end of the film and smashed their instruments. In that scene of the nightclub, Michael Palin, not yet a member of Monty Python, can be seen in the crowd watching the Yardbirds.

The plot was inspired by a short story by Julio Cortazar entitled “The Devil’s Drool”, based in part on the life of swinging London photographer David Bailey. The film was scored by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock- the first of his many soundtracks. Except for the music for the opening and closing title and credit sequences, the music is diegetic. Herbie Hancock noted: “It is only there when someone turns on the radio or puts on a record”.

“Blow-Up” won the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film in the main competition section of the 1967 Cannes Film Festival- the highest honor of the festival. The film was also nominated in the categories of Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best British Film for the 1967 Academy Awards.

The American release by MGM, a major Hollywood studio, of this counter-culture era film with its explicit sexual content was in direct defiance of the contemporary standards of the Production Code. MGM did not gain approval for this film. The film was also condemned by the Nation Legion of Decency, a United States Catholic organization which rated films. The collapse of the Production Code was foreshadowed when MGM released the film through a subsidiary distributer and “Blow-Up” was shown widely in North American cinemas despite the code. In 1968 the MPAA rating system was established when the Code was abandoned.

Calendar: May 11

Year: Day to Day Men: 11th of May

Communicating with Nature

May 11, 1969 is the birthdate of the British comedy troupe, Monty Python.

John Cleese was writing for TV personality David Frost and actor/comedian Marty Feldman, when he recruited Graham Chapman as a writing partner and “sounding board”. BBC had offered the pair a show of their own in early May of 1969. John Cleese reached out to former “How to Irritate People” writing partner Michael Palin, to join the team. Palin invited his own writing partner Terry Jones and colleague Eric Idle over from rival ITV. Eric Idle in turn wanted American-born Terry Gilliam for his animations.

The Pythons considered several names for their new program, including “Owl Stretching Time”, “The Toad Elevating Moment”, “Vaseline Review” and “A Horse, a Spoon and a Bucket”. “Flying Circus” had come up as well. The Flying Circus name stuck when BBC revealed that they had already printed flyers with this name and were not interested in printing any revisions.

The show was a collaborative process, beginning with the first broadcast on October 5, 1969. With no writers of their own, the six would divide into groups and write their own material. Whether any given sketch would make it into the program, was always a democratic process.

Different Python factions were responsible for different elements of the team’s humor. The work of the Oxford educated Terry Jones and Michael Palin was more visual, and a little more off the wall. The Spanish Inquisition arriving in a suburban apartment is a prime example. The Cambridge educated John Cleese and Graham Chapman were more confrontational – “This is abuse. I came here for an argument”. Any skit that got utterly involved with words was the work of Eric Idle, such as the ‘Man who Spoke in Anagrams’. Terry Gilliam was the personality behind all the peculiar animation.

The Pythons shared a dislike for “capping” bits with punchlines, and experimented with ending sketches by cutting abruptly to another scene, or breaking the rules altogether by addressing the camera directly. Terry Gilliam’s animations were a favorite technique to use: a 16 ton weight would drop from the sky and end the skit.

The Flying Circus broke new ground with techniques like the “cold open”. With no titles, credits, or opening theme, Michael Palin would crawl across the tundra a la Robinson Crusoe, looking into the camera and saying “It’s… And off the skits went. The cold open sometimes lasted until the middle of the show. Occasionally, the Pythons fooled viewers by rolling closing credits halfway through, usually continuing the gag by fading to the BBC logo while John Cleese parodied the tones of a BBC announcer. On one occasion the closing credits ran directly after the opening titles.

Calendar: May 10

A Year: Day to Day Men: 10th of May

The Lava Field

Olaf Stapledon, the British science fiction writer, was born on May 10, 1886.

Olaf Stapledon was educted at Abbotsholme School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he earned a BA degree in Modern History in 1909 and an MA degree in 1913. He was award a PhD degree in Philosophy from the University of Liverpool in 1925 and used his doctoral thesis as the basis for his first published prose book “A Modern Theory of Ethics” published in 1929. He, however, soon turned to fiction in the hope of presenting his ideas to a wider public.

In 1930, Stapledon wrote a future-history novel entitled “Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future”. It was a work of unprecedented scale in the science fiction genre, describing the history of humanity from the present onwards across two billion years, involving eighteen distinct human species, of which ours was the first.

Stapledon’s conception of history is based on the Hegelian Dialectic, following a repetitive cycle with many varied civilizations rising from and descending back into savagery over millions of years, but overall progressing, as the later civilizations rise to far greater heights than the first. The book anticipates the science of genetic engineering, and is an early example of the fictional supermind; a consciousness composed of many telepathically-linked individuals.

Stapledon followed that epic work with a sequel, the far less acclaimed “Last Men in London” published in 1932. The 1937 novel “Star Maker” could also be considered a sequel to “Last and First Men”, briefly mentioning man’s evolution on Neptune; but this novel is more ambitious in scope, being a history of the entire universe. He followed up these novels with many more books of fiction and philosophy.

After 1945, Stapledon travelled on lecture tours, and in 1949 spoke in Poland at the World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace. He attended the Conference for World Peace held in New York City in 1949. In 1950, he was actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement. After a week of lectures in Paris In August 1950, he cancelled a projected trip to Yugoslavia and returned to his home in Caldy, England, where he died very suddenly of a heart attack in early September.

Stapledon’s writings directly influenced Arthur C. Clark, Brian Aldis, Betrand Russell, John Maynard Smith and indirectly many others, contributing many ideas to the world of science fiction writing. None of Olaf Stapledon’s novels, however, have been presented as films.

Calendar: May 9

A Year: Day to Day Men: 9th of May

The Stag Tattoo

May 9, 1959 was the release date of Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological thriller “Vertigo”.

The film noir “Vettigo”, produced and directed by Hitchcock, was based on the 1954 novel “From Among the Dead” by Boileau-Narcejac. The star of the film James Stewart plays Scottie, a detective forced into early retirement, because an incident in the line of duty, causing him to develop a fear of heights, resulted in the death of a policeman. He is hired as a private investigator to follow an acquaintance’s wife, played by Kim Novack, who is behaving strangely.

“Vertigo” was filmed from September to December 1957, with the principal photography beginning on location in San Francisco. The film uses extensive location footage of the Bay Area, with its steep hills and tall, arching bridges. In the driving scenes shot in the city, the main characters’ cars are almost always pictured heading down the city’s steeply inclined streets.

The scene in which Madeleine falls from the tower was filmed at Mission San Juan Bautista. A steeple, added sometime after the mission’s original construction and secularization, had been demolished following a fire. So Hitchcock added a bell tower using scale models, matte paintings, and trick photography at the Paramount studio in Los Angeles.The original tower was much smaller and less dramatic than the film’s version. The tower’s staircase was later assembled inside a studio.

Hitchcock popularized the dolly zoom in this film, leading to the technique’s nickname “the Vertigo effect”. This “dolly-out/zoom-in” method involves the camera physically moving away from a subject whilst simultaneously zooming in, so that the subject retains its size in the frame, but the background’s perspective changes. Hitchcock used the effect to look down the tower shaft to emphasize its height and Scottie’s disorientation. Following difficulties filming the shot on a full-sized set, a model of the tower shaft was constructed, and the dolly zoom was filmed horizontally.

“Vertigo” premiered in San Francisco on May 9, 1958 at the Stage Door Theater. While the film did break even upon its original release, it earned less than other Hitchcock productions. Tghe film was nominated for two Academy Awards in the technical categories: Best Art Direction and Best Sound. Upon Hitchcock’s death in 1973, “Vertigo” was one of five Hitchcock films taken out of circulation. It wasn’t until ten years later that it was re-released after restoration and reprinting on 35mm stock.

Calendar: May 8

A Year: Day to Day Men: 8th of May

Catching the Last of the Rays

May 8, 1639 was the birthdate of Giovanni Battista Gaulli, the Italian artist of the High Baroque and early Rococo periods.

In mid-17th century, Gaulli’s Genoa was a cosmopolitan Italian artistic center open to both commercial and artistic enterprises from north European countries, including countries with non-Catholic populations such as England and the Dutch provinces. Painters such as Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck stayed in Genoa for a few years. Gaulli’s earliest influences would have come from an eclectic mix of these foreign painters and other local artists including Valerio Castello and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione.

The election of a new General of the Jesuit order, Gian Paolo Oliva, put into motion the artistic decoration of the Church of the Gesù, the mother church of the Society of Jesuits. With Gian Bernini’s support and his guidance thereafter, Oliva awarded the prestigious commission to the 22-year-old Giovanni Gaulli. The original contract stipulated the dome was to be completed in two years, and the remainder by the end of ten years. Gaulli’s main vault fresco was unveiled on Christmas Eve, 1679. After this, he continued frescoing of the vaults of the tribune and other areas in the church until 1685.

Gaulli’s nave masterpiece, the “Triumph of the Sacred Name of Jesus”, is an allegory of the work of the Jesuits that envelops worshippers or the observers below into the whirlwind of devotion. Swirling figures in the dark entry border of the composition frame the ‘open’ sky, ever rising upward toward a celestial vision of infinite depth. The light from Jesus’ name and symbol of the Jesuit order is gathered by patrons and saints above the clouds; while in the darkness below, a fusillade of brilliance scatters heretics, as if smitten by blasts of the Last Judgement. The great theatrical effect here, inspired and developed under his mentor Bernini, prompted critics to label Giovanni Gaulli a “Bernini in paint”.

Gaulli’s frescoes were a tour-de-force in illusionary painting, depicting the church’s roof opening up above the viewer; and the panorama is viewed in true perspective when seen from below. Gaulli’s ceiling is a masterpiece of architectural illusionism, combining stuccoed and painted figures and architecture. Bernini’s pupil Antonio Raggi provided the stucco figures. From the nave floor, it is difficult to distinguish painted from stucco angels. The figural composition spill over the frame’s edges which only heightens the illusion of the faithful rising miraculously toward the light above.

Calendar: May 7

A Year: Day to Day Men: 7th of May

A Man with Attitude

On May 7, 558, the great dome of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople completely collapsed.

Hagia Sophia is a cathedral located in Istanbul, Turkey. It is one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture. The original cathedral was finished in 360 A.D., but due to a future of riots, rebellions, and the fall of empires, the structure was rebuilt multiple times, each version more grand than the last. Due to this rich history, the cathedral has crowned the bodies of both the Christian and the Muslim world.

The size and measurements of the Hagia Sophia are much larger than other religious buildings of its time. This structure is world renown for the colossal dome that sits over its central space. The dome is 56 meters from ground level, 32 meters from North to South and 31 meters from East to West. It was the largest pendentive dome in the world until the completion of Saint Peter’s Basilica in 1626, and has a much lower height than any other dome of such a great diameter.

Earthquakes in August 553 and December 557 caused cracks in the main dome and eastern half-dome. The main dome collapsed completely during a subsequent earthquake on May 7th in the year 558, destroying the altar steps, the altar, and the structural canopy over the altar. The collapse was due mainly to the unfeasibly high bearing load and to the enormous sheer load of the dome, which was too flat. These caused the deformation of the piers which sustained the dome.

Emperor Justian I ordered an immediate restoration. He entrusted it to Isidorus the Younger, nephew of Isidore of Miletus, who rebuilt with lighter materials than previously used and elevated the dome by another thirty feet– giving the building its current interior height. Moreover, Isidorus shaped the new cupola like a scalloped shell or the inside of an umbrella, with ribs that extend from the top down to the base. These ribs allow the weight of the dome to flow between the windows, down the pendentives, and ultimately to the foundation.

Hagia Sophia is famous for the light that reflects everywhere in the interior of the nave, giving the dome the appearance of hovering above. This effect was achieved by the insertion of forty windows around the base of the original structure. The insertion of the windows in the dome structure, beside letting more light enter, lessened its weight upon the underlying structure. This reconstruction of the Hagia Sophia dome, giving the church its present 6th-century form, was completed in 562. The rededication of the basilica presided over by Patriarch Eutychius occurred on December 23, 562.

Calendar: May 6

A Year: Day to Day Men: 6th of May

The Full Stretch

On May 6, 1937, the German airship Hindenburg caught fire while attempting to dock.

The Hindenburg, Luftschiff Zeppelin #129, had a duralumin structure, incorporating fifteen Ferris wheel-like main ring bulkheads along its length, with sixteen cotton gas bags fitted between them. The airship’s outer skin was of cotton doped with a mixture of reflective materials intended to protect the bags from light damage and overheating from the sun. There were small passenger quarters in the middle flanked by large public rooms Long slanted windows ran the length of both decks.

Helium was initially selected for the lifting gas because it was the safest being not flammable. Despite a U.S. ban on the export of helium under the Helium Control Act of 1927, the Germans designed the airship to use the far safer gas in the belief that they could convince the US government to license its export. When the designers learned that the National Munitions Control Board would refuse to lift the export ban, they were forced to re-engineer Hindenburg to use hydrogen for lift. No alternative lighter than air gases could provide sufficient lift.

On the fateful May 1937 trip, the Hindenburg took off on time, it ran into delays crossing the Atlantic due to headwinds and approaching storm fronts. The crew radioed Lakehurst announcing they would delay their arrival time by 10 to 12 hours, from 6 a.m. on May 6 to late afternoon. This allowed the airship to float over the Boston and New York City skies during daylight hours, which was not part of the original schedule.

The airship arrived at Lakehurst at about 4:15 p.m., only to begin circling again because of bad weather. By 6:15 p.m., the storm had subsided and Lakehurst’s commanding officer told the ship’s captain to land as soon as possible to beat another approaching storm. Shortly after 7 p.m., the Hindenburg neared the mooring mast, but the tail felt heavy and the winds prevented the ship from being level. In response, the captain released hydrogen from cells 11 to 16 for 30 seconds in hopes of reducing the buoyancy of the bow and keeping the ship in level trim.

At the same time, the winds shifted, leaving the airship little room to maneuver. So the crew executed a sharp turn to align with the mooring mast. In the end, it was a lot of adjusting, leveling and quick decision-making that all could been factors what ended up happening. At 7:21 p.m, with the airship 180 feet in the air, the forward landing ropes were dropped. Then the airship caught on fire; at 7:25 pm, little was left but rubble.

Hindenburg left Frankfurt with ninety seven people onboard; 62 survived the crash at Lakehurst, although many suffered serious injuries. Thirteen of the thirty-six passengers, and twenty-two of the sixty-one member crew, died as a result of the crash, along with one member of the civilian landing party.

Calendar: May 5

A Year: Day to Day Men: 5th of May

Barroco Tesouro

May 5, 1914 is the birthdate of American film actor Tyrone Edmund Power III.

Tyrone Power went to Hollywood in 1936. The director Henry King was impressed with his looks and poise, and he insisted that Power be tested for the lead role in “Lloyd’s of London”. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck decided to give Power the role, believing Power had a great screen presence. Power had fourth billing in the credits; but he had the most screen time of the actors. On the night of the movie premier, he walked in an unknown and walked out a star.

Power racked up hit after hit from 1936 until 1943, when his career was interrupted by military service. In those years he starred in comedies, westerns, dramas, and swashbucklers such as: “Thin Ice”, “Blood and Sand”, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”, “Jesse James”, “The Black Swan” and”The Mark of Zorro”. Power was named the second biggest box office draw in 1939, surpassed only by Mickey Rooney.

In 1940 the direction of Power’s career took a dramatic turn when his movie “The Mark of Zorro” was released. Power played the role of Don Diego Vega/Zorro, fop by day, bandit hero by night. The film was a hit, and 20th Century Fox often cast Power in other swashbucklers in the years that followed. Power was a talented swordsman in real life, and the dueling scene in “The Mark of Zorro” is highly regarded. The great Hollywood swordsman Basil Rathbone, who starred with him in the film, commented, “Power was the most agile man with a sword I’ve ever faced before a camera. Tyrone could have fenced Errol Flynn into a cocked hat.”

The 1955 movie “Untamed” was Tyrone Power’s last movie made under his contract with 20th Century Fox. The same year saw the release of “The Long Gray Line”, a successful military John Ford film for Columbia Pictures with Power playing the lead role. Power’s old boss, Darryl F. Zanuck, persuaded him to play the lead role in the 1957 “The Sun Also Rises”, adapted from the Hemingway novel. This was his final film with Fox.

For Power’s last completed film role, he was cast against type as the accused murderer Leonard Vole in the first film version of Agatha Christie’s “Witness for the Prosecution”, directed by Billy Wilder. Robert Fulford, film critic of the Washington Post, commented on Power’s “superb performance” as “the seedy, stop-at-nothing exploiter of women”. The movie was well received and a success at the box office.

In September of 1958 Tyrone Power went to Spain to film the epic “Solomon and Sheba”. He had filmed about 75 per cent of his scenes when he was stricken by a massive heart attack while filming a dueling scene with his co-star and friend George Sanders. Power died in Madrid on November 15, 1958 at the age of 44. On his tombstone at Hollywood Forever Cemetery are the masks of comedy and tragedy, with the inscription “Good night, sweet prince”.

Calendar: May 4

A Year: Day to Day Men: 4th of May

The Distance of Space

On May 4, 1953, Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and his public image brought him admiration from later generations. He published seven novels, six short-story collections, and two non-fiction works. Three of his novels, four short story collections, and three non-fiction works were published posthumously.

In late September of 1921, Hemingway married Hadley Richardson; the couple then moved to France. In Paris, Hemingway met American writer and art collector Gertrude Stein, Irish novelist James Joyce, American poet Ezra Pound and other writers. He was introduced to the expatriate artists and writers of the Montparnasse Quarter referred to as the “Lost Generation”—a term Hemingway popularized with the 1926 publication of his debut novel “The Sun Also Rises”. At Stein’s salon he met influential painter such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, and Juan Gris.

In 1941, the Pulitzer Prize jurors voted unanimously for Ernest Hemingway’s 1940 book “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. Everyone was in favor of the book except for Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University and ex-officio chairman of the board. Butler vetoed the jurors’ choice, deeming the book offensive and profane. He said, “I hope that you will reconsider before you ask the University to be associated with an award for a work of this nature.” There was no fiction winner that year.

However, Hemingway did go on to win the Pulitzer on May 4, 1953 for his novel, “The Old Man and the Sea”. Some have interpreted Hemingway’s eventual Pulitzer more as a nod to his overall career than as an award for “The Old Man and the Sea”—generally considered a lesser work to “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. Shortly after the publication of “The Old Man and the Sea”, Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in two successive plane crashes that left him in pain or ill health for much of the rest of his life.

In October 1954, Hemingway received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Because hs was suffering pain from the African accidents, he decided against traveling to Stockholm. Instead he sent a speech to be read: “Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer’s loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.”

Calendar: May 3

A Year: Day to Day Men: 3rd of May

Absorbed in His Thoughts

May 3, 1469 was the birthdate of Niccolo di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, the Italian diplomat, politician, and writer of the Renaissance period.

Machiavelli was born in a tumultuous era in which popes waged acquisitive wars against Italian city-states. People and cities often fell from power as France, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire battled for regional influence and control. Political-military alliances continually changed, featuring mercenary leaders, who changed sides without warning. The result was a rise and fall of many short-lived governments.

Between 1503 and 1506, Machiavelli was responsible for the Florentine militia. Under his command, Florentine citizen-soldiers defeated Pisa in 1509. However, Machiavelli’s success did not last. In August 1512 the Medici, backed by Pope Julius II, used Spanish troops to defeat the Florentines at Prato. After the Medici victory in 1512, the Florentine city-state and the republic were dissolved, and Machiavelli was deprived of office. In 1513 the Medici accused him of conspiracy against them and had him imprisoned. Despite having been subjected to torture, he denied involvement and was released after three weeks.

Machiavelli then retired to his estate at Sant’Andrea in Percussina and devoted himself to studying and writing the political treatises that earned his place in the intellectual development of political philosophy and political conduct. He wrote his most well-known work “The Prince” in 1513 during his exile from city affairs.

Machiavellianism is widely used as a negative term to characterize unscrupulous politicians of the sort Machiavelli described most famously in “The Prince”. Machiavelli described immoral behavior, such as dishonesty and the killing of innocents, as being normal and effective in politics. He even seemed to encourage it in some situations. The book gained notoriety due to claims that it teaches “evil recommendations to tyrants to help them maintain their power”.

The term “Machiavellian” is often associated with political deceit, deviousness, and realpolitik. On the other hand, many commentators, such as Baruch Spinoza, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Denis Diderot, have argued that Machiavelli was actually a republican, even when writing “The Prince”, and his writings were an inspiration to Enlightenment proponents of modern democratic political philosophy. In one place, for example, he noted his admiration for the selfless Roman statesman Cincinnatus, who, after twice being granted absolute authority during crises, gave up the power as soon as it was no longer necessary, each crisis have been resolved.

Calendar: May 2

A Year: Day to Day Men: 2nd of May

Nestled in Slate-Gray Sheets

May 2, 1946 was the release date of the film “The Postman Always Rings Twice”.

The film noir “The Postman Always Rings Twice” is one of the earliest prototypes of today’s erotic thrillers. The screenplay by Harry Ruskin and Niven Busch was based on the 1934 controversial first novel of the same name by crime fiction writer James M. Cain. Cain was known for novels with forbidden lust, love triangles, brutal, raw sexiness, and adultery-motivated murder. Two previous, sexually-charged classic film noirs adapted from Cain’s novels had met with both critical and box-office success: “Double Indemnity” and “Mildred Pierce”.

In early February 1934, before Cain’s novel was published, a synopsis of his story was submitted to the Production Code Administration, which reviewed movie scripts against the morals code established for motion picture industry. The PCA persuaded RKO Studio to abandon its plans to film Cain’s story, calling it “definitely unsuitable for motion picture production.”

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased the rights to make a movie adaptation a full twelve years prior the film’s release. They were dissuaded from moving forward with the project earlier because of fears that its themes of adultery and murder would run afoul of the production code that began to be rigorously enforced not long after they had acquired the rights. The studio finally decided to proceed with the film in 1944.

The film was a breakthrough in the battle against screen censorship. Although the Production Code Administration had kept James M. Cain’s novel off the screen for twelve years, they approved the 1946 picture despite its sizzling love scenes. Shocked fans even insisted the two stars, Lana Turner and John Garfield, were French kissing on screen.

“The Postman Always Rings Twice” was a big hit, earning about five million dollars at the box office, recording a profit of about two million dollars. Despite the profit, Louis B. Mayer of MGM hated the film. Although known now as a one of the key works in the development of the film noir style, it did not receive even one Academy Award nomination.

Calendar: April 30

A Year: Day to Day Men: 30th of April

The Mesh Pouch

April 30, 1952 was the date for the first advertisement of a toy on national television in the United States.

In the early 1940s, Brooklyn-born toy inventor George Lerner came up with the idea of inserting small, pronged body and face parts into fruits and vegetables to create a “funny face man”. Lerner would often take potatoes from his mother’s garden and, using various other fruits and vegetables as facial features, he would make dolls with which his younger sisters could play. The grape-eyed, carrot-nosed, potato-headed dolls became the principal idea behind the plastic toy which would later be manufactured.

In the beginning, Lerner’s toy proved controversial. With World War II and food rationing a recent memory for most Americans, the use of fruits and vegetables to make toys was considered irresponsible and wasteful. After several years of trying to sell the toy, Lerner finally convinced a food company to distribute the plastic parts as premiums in breakfast cereal boxes.

in 1951, Lerner showed the idea to Henry and Merrill Hassenfeld, who conducted a small school supply and toy business called Hassenfeld Brothers which later changed its name to Hasbro, Inc.. Realizing the toy was quite unlike anything in their line, they paid the cereal company to stop production and bought the rights. Lerner was offered an advance of $500 and a 5% royalty on every kit sold. The toy was dubbed “Mr. Potato Head” and went into production.

On April 30, 1952, Mr. Potato Head became the first toy advertised on television. The campaign was also the first to be aimed directly at children; before this, commercials were only targeted at adults, so toy adverts had always been pitched to parents. This commercial revolutionized the field of marketing, and caused an industrial boom. Over one million kits were sold in the first year.

In 1953, Mrs. Potato Head was added, and soon after, Brother Spud and Sister Yam completed the Potato Head family with accessories reflecting the affluence of the fifties that included a car, a boat trailer, a kitchen set, a stroller, and pets called Spud-ettes. Although originally produced as separate plastic parts to be stuck into a real potato or other vegetable, a plastic potato was added to the kit in 1964.

Calendar: April 29

A Year: Day to Day Men: 29th of April

Lazy Sunday Morning

A pivotal figure in the history of jazz, Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 in Washington, D.C.

Duke Ellington wrote his first composition “Soda Fountain Rag” in the summer of 1914 while working as soda jerk at the Poodle Dog Cafe. This piece was created by ear, as he had not yet mastered reading and writing music. At the age of 14, he began sneaking into poolrooms to listen to the poolroom pianists play, causing him to get serious about his piano lessons. With the guidance of Washington pianist and band leader Oliver “Doc” Perry, Ellington learned to read sheet music, project a professional style and improve his technique.

Ellington played in other band ensembles while at the same time working several day jobs. In late 1917 he formed and acted as booking agent for his first group “The Duke’s Serenaders”. He had a successful career in Washington D.C. playing for private society balls and embassy parties. When his drummer Sonny Greer was invited to join the Wilber Sweatman Orchestra in New York City, Ellington made the fateful decision to leave behind his successful career in Washington, D.C., and moved to Harlem, New York, ultimately becoming part of the Harlem Renaissance.

In 1925 Duke Ellington and his Kentucky Club Orchestra grew to a group of ten players; they developed their own sound by displaying the non-traditional expression of Ellington’s arrangements, the street rhythms of Harlem, and the exotic-sounding trombone growls and wah-wahs, high-squealing trumpets, and sultry saxophone blues licks of the band members.

In the late 1950s Ellington began to work directly on scoring for film soundtracks; one was the 1959 film “Anatomy of a Murder”, in which Ellington appeared fronting a roadhouse comb. Film historians have recognized the soundtrack of “Anatomy of a Murder” as a landmark – the first significant Hollywood film music by African Americans comprising non-diegetic music, that is, music whose source is not visible or implied by action in the film, like an on-screen band. The score avoided the cultural stereotypes which previously characterized jazz scores and rejected a strict adherence to visuals in ways that presaged the New Wave cinema of the 1960s.

Despite his advancing age in the 1960s and 70s, Ellington showed no sign of slowing down as he continued to make vital and innovative recordings: ‘The Far East Suite’, ‘New Orlean Suite’, ‘The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse’, and ‘Francis A and Edward K’, his only album recorded with Frank Sinatra. Ellington performed what is considered his final full concert in a ballroom at Northern Illinois University on March 20, 1974. At his funeral, attended by over 12.000 people at the cathedral of Saint John the Divine, Ella Fitzgerald summed up the occasion, saying “It’s a very sad day. A genius has passed”.

Calendar: April 28

A Year: Day to Day Men: 28th of April

A Road Well Traveled

April 28, 1879 was the birthdate of Edgard Tytgat, the Flemish painter and etcher.

Edgard Tytgat was a Belgium based artist: a painter, author, and engraver. He studied at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts where he discovered the new movements of symbolism and post-impressionism. It was artists like Cezanne and Bonnard that influenced his work.

One of the publications with woodcuts that he produced in 1917 after the death of his friend, Wouters, is the volume “Quelques Images de la Vie d’un Artiste” (Some Images of an Artists’ Life), of which he singlehandedly printed forty numbered copies. By every one of the sixteen intentionally naïve prints Tytgat wrote a short text about the life of Rik and Nel Wouters, whom he knew so well.

Tytgat’s style evolved from local Fauvism to a wayward Expressionism with a popular and naïve character. During his career Edgard Tytgat painted nearly five hundred canvases and made countless watercolors, woodcuts, etchings and drawings. Even though he belonged to the group of artists associated with the journal Sélection, his work cannot be placed in any one particular camp. It is difficult to divide his work into well-defined periods, and it lacks clear chronological development. His earliest works are considered impressionistic, while later works can be described as expressionistic or naive.

Tytgat’s world was bittersweet. He was thoroughly familiar with art history and often drew inspiration from classic themes. His works are often bathed in an atmosphere of lost innocence or youth, fantasies, and eroticism. Everyday life and incidents from his own environment were also a great source of inspiration. However, Tytgat’s real strength was his virtuoso manner of storytelling. He invested images that at first glance seem naive, childlike and cheerful with a dark side. In this way he was able to create a complex web of meanings. A multitude of scenarios play out within a single image.